London Underground workers have called off a strike that was set to bring misery to Londoners over Christmas but fresh strikes could be looming. Metronet workers were due to take three days of strike action in the week before Christmas in a dispute about outsourcing, redundancies and pensions, but called it off after the RMT union reached agreement with the contractor. However, ballots of underground station staff and Docklands Light Railway members will go ahead in two separate disputes about implementing a 35-hour week and pay. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said Metronet had agreed that there would be no outsourcing of current work to subcontractors and that there will be no compulsory redundancies. “We have agreed on how voluntary redundancies will be handled, and we now have a commitment from the company for the full implementation of the 35-hour week,” he said. “The company has also agreed to set up a commission on new employees and its final-salary pension scheme.”
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